Profile

Alumni Simon Peters is a 2014 graduate of the Honors Program with a B.A. in Chinese and Applied Linguistics, where his focus was endangered language documentation and maintenance. Simon spent his final year studying Chinese abroad in preparation for a field research project in Yunnan, China. In 2013, he was a participant in the State Department sponsored Critical Language Scholarship Program in Shanghai. Afterward, he continued his Chinese language study at PSU's sister school in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for five months. Simon participated in an SIT Study Abroad program in Yunnan, China, where he conducted field research on the vitality and maintenance of a local Tibetan language variety in a developing tourism center. His participation in these programs has been supported in part by the Portland State University Out of State Opportunity Scholarship; Critical Language Scholarship Program; Kawase Scholarship for International Education from the PSU Office of International Affairs; D. Paul Fansler Memorial Scholarship from Confucius Institute at PSU; Laurels Merit Award from the PSU Honors Program; and the SIT Scholarship from SIT Study Abroad. Simon recently received a second Critical Language Scholarship from the State department and will be pursuing his PhD at University of California, Santa Barbara.